1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of damping vibration in a read/write head during time periods in which the head is inoperative.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a disk drive, a device known as a “head” is used to read or write to an optical recording medium such as a compact disk (CD). A head that can read and/or write to an optical recording medium may be referred to herein as a “read/write head.” If the compact disk is configured such that it cannot be written to, but can only be read, it is sometimes referred to as a “CD-ROM”.
A laser diode of the head reads and/or writes to the optical recording medium by focusing energy upon particular locations on the optical recording medium. During time periods in which the head is operating, i.e., is reading and/or writing to the optical recording medium, the head is constantly actuated in directions toward and away from the optical recording medium in order to keep the laser diode focused. The head may include at least one permanent magnet, and the head may be actuated by exerting an electromagnetic field on the head by running an electrical current through a coil that is adjacent to the head.
During time periods in which the head is not operating, there is no need to focus the head on the optical recording medium. Thus, in known disk drives, no actuation or control of the position of the read/write head occurs while the head is not operating.
Accordingly, what is neither anticipated nor obvious in view of the prior art is any method of controlling the position of a read/write head during time periods in which the head is not reading or writing to an optical recording medium.